Just the other day. Well, yesterday actually, I got flagged. I looked all around my site, and I didn’t really find anything that broke the terms of services, also known informally as the ToS. However, even though it didn’t break anything, to no avail, I was still flagged. Later on, one of the support administrators apologized and told me not to worry. Of course, I said thank you and we both typed about our merry way (I’m assuming). This brings me to my newfangled point: So what if there is some content that some people could potentially misunderstand, that you don’t want being “flagged?” Well before I answer that, I’ll stop being a terrible writer and fill you all in.

When one is “flagged,” this means he or she has been observed for “questionable content.” According to WordPress.COM:

If you are logged in, click the Blog Info link on the far right of the admin bar and you will see the links to flag a blog to us.

If you are not logged in, use the Report Spam form.

We do not always respond to these reports but every single one is read and the site in question is reviewed.

Blogs with legal adult content are not removed. They are flagged as Mature so that they become less visible throughout WordPress.com by being excluded from Top Blogs, Recent Posts and Global Tag Listings.

Blogs with spam or illegal content are removed. In addition, copywritten material [such as warez] are not allowed.

Pretty simple right? Don’t post illegal material ON your blog & do not post pornographic material unless you want to disappear from blog rankings. Now unless you have one HELL of a porno blog, then hey bro, go rrrright ahead, and in fact, give me a link to your blog while you’re at it Yeeeyyyerrrr. Anyways, “flagging” constitutes being limited to only replying to comments &/or deleting posts. Yes, it is annoying, I know. I didn’t like it one bit. It’s funny because when I first started doing this blogging thing, it was a little stressful to try to come up with “stories,” each and every day, but I grew to like the challenge, and write something for all to see. I feel as though almost a week has past…along with a week worth of viewers due to unupdated content. But NEVER FEAR! UNFLAGGED MATTHEW IS HERE!!!!! Matt’s my real name btw. I’m actually Matthew the third, but we’ll get into that….later.

Alrighty, ok, usually when you’re flagged, a little yellow banner invites itself to the top of your blog edit control panel thingy. Included in this little, “thingy,” a link enabling you to contact support exists. It is up to you to contact them and ask, “hey, umm….yeah so I think I might have did something…or someone Thooouuught I did something? So ummm like, what’d I do…essay…homie…dude…broskiiiii…???” If you’re lucky, I’d assume you’d get an answer fairly quick, but alas, I received an answer in about a day’s time. I completely missed my opurtunity to monopolize on the day’s anime news. In fact, one of my good anime friends, Grace, laughed @ me online when I said I didn’t like it……needless to say, she was playing Maple Story…..yeah…I didn’t like that.

Back to the flagging, an admin can either decide to ignore the report (especially if nothing bad was even on your site, like mine >.>!), warn the offender, suspend the blogger, or even terminate the blog if the offense was serious enough. I’m sure nothing like that has happend…CHEYAH….FUCKING RIGHT….but I’m sure it was the bloggers fault all the way though if they we’re expelled…DUNDUNDUNNNN!!!!!! Well now knowing this, I started to wonder, is there a way I can keep wordpress’s (yes, there’s an apostrophe ‘s’ there) WONDERFUL software, but be able to post material without worrying? Well, this is when I decided to delve into the difference between WordPress.COM & WordPress.ORG.

Initially, when I signed up for WordPress, I had the solid impression that there was only one WordPress. Naturally, I believed it was the service I was signing up for. Not true. In reality, there were at least 3 different services I could have used. This is where I break it ddudududdoaaawwwnnnnnn. WordPress (WP) .COM is the free blog hosting solution. Essentially, it’s the thing that probably half bloggers use these days. Hell, I’m using it right now! The 2nd solution is WP.ORG. Now the difference is small, but big. WP.ORG allows a user to download WP’s software directly onto his or her computer in a simple, fast, and easy fasion. The only problem is you need hosting in order to use it. Now most of you would think…”oh no, hosting? Doesn’t that cost money?” Well yes and no. More yes than no from my point of view

Like I said prior, hosting can fork down 2 roads: free or not. I haven’t done MUCH reasearch regarding the free web hosters because I myself am looking for one I can pay for, transfer my domain, and potentially host some erotic material without sweating. A little after taking a break from my research while fooling around online, I saw something AMAZING. A wordpress website….but NOT by wordpress? Huh? Well here domain was, “http://fireflylights.freehostia.com/” I’m telling you, this site was TOGETHER. Like wow. I was so blown away. I was sitting, just rethinking my blogging career looking at her amazing setup. Of course, the first thing I looked for was her contact. I can’t remember if I found it or not, but if there was one thing I DID do, it was bookmark her page like twice! She had her site hosted by “http://www.freehostia.com” A site that honestly, looks like the BEST solution for free hosting. As good as you can get really.

After bookmarking her page, I scrolled down, and to my joy I found a little thingy that said, “Powered by WordPress, Mandigo theme by Tom.” I was so elated. Predictably, the first thing I did was click on the link to the template she used. It looked amazing. Now how in the world could I get to do that with my blog? I did some more reasearch over @ WP.ORG, and it looked like I needed to do 3 steps, find a host, download, then setup. Little did I know, WP.ORG had a link to official hosts they supported.

To be quite honest, all of them looked good, but I wasn’t interested in just “good.” I had a goal. I wanted a good-ass fucking site, ability to include a forum onsite, sign-in for members, wordpress support, domain redirect, and most importantly, ability to host pornographic content without problems. Now remember, when you move over to a host, you have to follow their rules, not wordpress’s. WordPress is just the instrument by which to produce your insanity. So knowing that, I made it my goal to read through the fine print of each and every hosing site’s ToS or “Legal,” as GoDaddy likes to call it.

I wanted to do the research really fast, and luckily majority of the sites had a live chat rep to contact. I GOTTA say, all sites had wonderful service and seemed like wonderful hosting solutions, but again, that wasn’t the whole point. I always asked them straight out, if they allowed pornographic content on their site. The first said no, which was Dreamhost, then I asked another…then another..they all said no. Laughing Squid said no too. MT, or “MediaTemple” was SO FUCKING EXPENSIVE!!! JEEZ WTF. Lowest package starting @ 20 FUCKIN BUCKS……TWITTA PLEASE…..

ANYWAYYYYYSSS. I went to the second-most supposed web hoster, Host Monster. Surprisingly, the chat rep just flat out said yes! Ok great, wonderful stats, good options, everything seemed a go! The monthly price was around 12.95. I just rounded to 13, multiplied by 12 & got like 156 or something.  Went to checkout….I saw 176 dollars!?!?!? DUDE WTF. Deception written all over that shit. I went to another sales rep to see what the issue was & he said, oh, yeah the 12 month price is visible when you roll over it. Apparently, they ONLY have their 3 year price up publically. Like hell everyone’s gonna register for 36 months…some people….

Even more discouraged, I went to the last hosting solution: “JustHost.” This was the conversation that followed:

All our operators are currently assisting others customers. You are currently in position 1 Thank you for your patience. An operator will be with you shortly.

You are now chatting with ‘Kelvin’

Kelvin: Welcome to Live Chat support, how may I help you?

matt: Hello there

matt: Well i had a small question. For example, I have a wordpress site, thinking about getting a .org one and moving it with you all

matt: my question is: i looked @ your terms & conditions & all i saw was child pornography. I saw nothing about just regular pornography.

matt: Are you allowed to put up SLIGHTly pornographic material

matt: nothing outright exposing, but just mild/softcore type stuff

matt: barely even that

matt: would that be flagged or taken down, or penalized?

Kelvin: Just a moment

matt: ok.

matt: btw, im not hosting a pornography site, just every now and then related material might come up. Just didn’t want to be flagged for something like that. The terms/services had nothing even referring to it. That’s why I asked, sorry if this is troubling. I really want to know. I could potentially be a lifetime customer if i can

Kelvin: You can host pornographic material but make sure it is copyrighted one

(Note it took about 5 mins to reply, so he was actually looking for an answer)

matt: make sure it’s not copywritten?

Kelvin: Yes

matt: ah, ok

OMFG!!! YES, I CAN DO IT. I looked @ everything else. & Everything else was perfectly LEGIT. So I just decided this moment I was to be moving on to wordpress.org…even though I don’t know what the hell I’m gonna do to revise script. All I know is I’ll figure it out. I just wanna post my shit the way I want Well, good luck posting guys, and hava good one – ???